Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

They said rural pubs were under threat and asked me what I proposed to do to safeguard the economic well-being of rural publicans in this statute. One cannot have it both ways.

Irish society is moving on and changing and it has problems. The alcohol problem derives in large measure from a superabundance of resources in the hands of a young generation in their late teens and early 20s around whom a social structure exists in which entertainment and amusement is centred on the consumption of drink. We live in a society in which off sales are growing and alcohol is available in slabs of cans to be brought home and consumed.

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